Indian Rock Native Garden

This was the final class expedition and as such, it was Matt’s turn to drive. Zane, Mahsa, and Matt met up at school and we picked up Carrie along our way. This time Carrie was our navigator and she brought brownies and cookies. It was awesome. We arrived on time and looked around. It was weird for me because I was used to going to a reservation where there was a lot of space and area to look at and cruise around. This was just a small space and it was nestled in the middle of a housing development but there were big rocks and big rocks are always a bonus in my book. I used to climb the red rock in Sedona with my mom when I was younger. After a few more minutes our guides Al Cerda and Mel Vernon as well as tribal members arrived.

This was perhaps the trip that was the most plant intensive. In addition to the names of plants (which of course I can’t remember) we also learned about their habits and growth patterns which was interesting. I know some about the plants that we have at my house but those are not wild California native plants. As we continued on, we learned about the wild sage which was cool since I actually knew about it already. Well, I didn’t know the species name but my mom and I use that for cleansing all the time. When I told Zane he looked at me like I was crazy. It is amazing though because it really is helpful especially after being in a bad/negative environment or being overloaded. It helps me reset. I can’t explain it. Anyways, we got to the the big rocks and me being the person I am decided to go explore them instead of just stay on the ground. Of course people follow suit like Matt. I got this really awesome picture of him up on the bigger rock and some other ones of him around the rocks.

I wanted to get up there too but apparently we weren’t allowed. Opps! Its ok though. I still had my camera and all that and Emily was already holding Matt’s camera. We finally came back to real ground and learned all about the coming of age ceremony for the young women. It was cool to hear about because I took and anthropology class at Mira Costa and learned all about different Native American Indians and their customs and lifestyle. It was nice to get this information and see how it aligned with what I had learned before. I love learning about old ceremonies and customs mostly because I like learning about people and their lifestyles. We had also learned about how the site came to be built, preserved and take care of as well as the tagging from local gangs. It is sad that gangs would tag the rock because it has such a strong cultural importance to a group of people and it has been degraded because of the tagging. I’m not opposed to graffiti because it can be an art form and really pretty to look at. Once our learning time was over, we walked a little bit down the way and everyone made a feast for us to eat! I felt a little bad because we didn’t really do anything to help them and I almost felt undeserving but the food was good. There were sandwiches of turkey, ham, and roast beef with all the fixings. There was also pasta salad and potato salad and regular salad. It was awesome. After sitting and enjoying ourselves, it was time to call it a day. This was probably my favorite class field trip we took and not just because of the food.